----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Thomas Harold" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, August 14, 2006 2:53 AM
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] New laptop purchase


<snip>

Minimum requirements should be:
- dual-core (Core Duo) CPU unit
- 1GB minimum with upgrade to 2GB down the road of RAM
- 80GB hard drive (or 100GB), you can upgrade this later
- display resolution greater then 1024x768

<snip>

**********************

I've been considering buying a laptop for some time now (in spite of the 
fact that they are very bad deals and extremely inflexible).  One of the 
things that I've noticed and thought was silly in a laptop was the dual-core 
cpu.  However, I see here that you recommend it, and I'd like to know why. 
(It may be moot soon enough, because most new laptops seem to be coming out 
with them.)

Here is my take on it.  While desktops may be multitasking (working a 
spreadsheet or downloading email or whatever while you are playing 
Freecell), most laptops will not be.  Generally laptop users will be using 
their laptop for a single cpu intensive task.  Certainly with modern 
operating systems there may be fifty processes going on in the background, 
but these processes will take almost no time slices away from the foreground 
task.  So, it doesn't seem that the vast majority of people need a dual core 
cpu.  On the other hand, the dual core cpu will run hotter and drain more 
battery current than a single core unit.  Heat and off-cord run time 
(battery life) are critical problems with laptops.  Therefore, it seems to 
me that a dual-core cpu is something to avoid, not a requirement.  (For most 
people.)

Since so many of the new laptops are coming out with dual core cpu's, I 
suspect that there's some significant advantage to them that I'm unaware of, 
or, the power cost is not as high as I suppose.  I'd sincerely like to know 
why one would really want to purchase a dual core cpu in a laptop.  (BTW, I 
have a dual core AMD FX 60 in my desktop, and I like it pretty much.)

Dean Kukral 

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